● Species profile
Matsutake
Tricholoma matsutake
Photo: Tomomarusan, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
A spicy, cinnamon-scented mushroom prized in Japan, where top specimens sell for hundreds of dollars. It grows with pine roots and has never been reliably farmed. Japan's own harvest has collapsed, so most now comes from China, Korea, and North America.
Historical Use and Context
Matsutake has been prized in Japan for more than a thousand years, and poems in the 8th-century Man'yōshū celebrate its scent. It became a traditional autumn gift among the aristocracy and still sells for hundreds of dollars a pound. It has never been successfully cultivated, so every matsutake is foraged.
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